Floreana Island
Today we had a day full of adventures; early in the morning we disembarked to visit the most famous bay in the Galapagos, known as Post Office Bay. This bay is so famous because in the seventeen hundreds several boats passed through the archipelago and arrived at Floreana Island. Many different sailors and whalers visited this island in a search for land tortoises and water, and they established a mail system that has continued to work today, whalers now being replaced by tour boats.
After breakfast, we visited an islet called Champion, small but home to a lot of different life forms.We undertook several different activities here, while some of us decided to take a ride in the glass bottom boat, others chose to join the marine life and snorkel. This being the hot season, the water was very clear, with at least 50 feet of visibility and the fish abounded. We saw huge schools of colorful tropical reef fish, silvery open-water species, and more white-tipped reef sharks than I had ever seen here before (someone counted twenty!).
The white tip reef shark can be found all around the Galapagos Islands, and we consider it the most harmless shark of these waters, being that they inhabit the shallow waters where they like to rest on the bottom, and eat mainly small fish and invertebrates. Many of our guests enjoyed swimming with them and we often counted about six or seven of them swimming underneath us at one time! It was very exciting. The afternoon continued to be wonderful, as we repositioned to an area named Punta Cormorant and went for a lovely walk that led us past a lagoon home to a good number of flamingoes. Several of these were resting on one foot, which was comical to see, and they were also accompanied by some chicks only a couple of weeks old. The trail ended on a beautiful white beach, which is a popular nesting site for the green Pacific turtle, and a couple of these ancient creatures were in full reproductive swing in the shallows! We had a day full of surprises.
Today we had a day full of adventures; early in the morning we disembarked to visit the most famous bay in the Galapagos, known as Post Office Bay. This bay is so famous because in the seventeen hundreds several boats passed through the archipelago and arrived at Floreana Island. Many different sailors and whalers visited this island in a search for land tortoises and water, and they established a mail system that has continued to work today, whalers now being replaced by tour boats.
After breakfast, we visited an islet called Champion, small but home to a lot of different life forms.We undertook several different activities here, while some of us decided to take a ride in the glass bottom boat, others chose to join the marine life and snorkel. This being the hot season, the water was very clear, with at least 50 feet of visibility and the fish abounded. We saw huge schools of colorful tropical reef fish, silvery open-water species, and more white-tipped reef sharks than I had ever seen here before (someone counted twenty!).
The white tip reef shark can be found all around the Galapagos Islands, and we consider it the most harmless shark of these waters, being that they inhabit the shallow waters where they like to rest on the bottom, and eat mainly small fish and invertebrates. Many of our guests enjoyed swimming with them and we often counted about six or seven of them swimming underneath us at one time! It was very exciting. The afternoon continued to be wonderful, as we repositioned to an area named Punta Cormorant and went for a lovely walk that led us past a lagoon home to a good number of flamingoes. Several of these were resting on one foot, which was comical to see, and they were also accompanied by some chicks only a couple of weeks old. The trail ended on a beautiful white beach, which is a popular nesting site for the green Pacific turtle, and a couple of these ancient creatures were in full reproductive swing in the shallows! We had a day full of surprises.
